Over on Rough Type, Nicolas Carr’s blog, he points to a document dated from March 30, 1965. In this document Western Union describes its plan to build “a nationwide information utility, which will enable subscribers to obtain, economically, efficiently, immediately, the required information flow to facilitate the conduct of business and other affairs." Sound familiar?
I love Nicolas’ conclusion:
“When the history of cloud computing is written, it may be that Western Union will play the role that Xerox now plays in the history of the personal computer: the company that saw the future first, but couldn’t capitalize on its vision.”
When reading the blog post I was reminded of the battle between Western Union and Alexander Graham Bell almost a century earlier. Here’s a short version of that story.
[...] Over on Rough Type, Nicolas Carr’s blog, he points to a document dated from March 30, 1965. In this document Western Union describes its plan to build “a nationwide information utility, which … (read more). [...]